European Gardening: Male Gatekeeper, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
Hi Pat, I will take a look.

I had a Small Tortoiseshell last year and only saw it once, but got some good pics. It has returned, I got some pics yesterday. The blue bits around the edges are not as bright, I'm not sure if the adult from last year is still around and it has faded.

Their flight period is from mid May to late Sept., and again after hibernation from Feb or March to May. So do they lay eggs from Feb to May, then these are the hatched ones?

They have 2 or 3 broods, lay eggs in batches on the undersides of young leaves. I saw a batch of white eggs under a lower camellia leaf when looking for scale insect, there is a few leftovers of them still egging up. I left them there, I'm sure they are a butterflies eggs, I saw a Red Admiral last year drop a white egg.

I have a campanula mix I grew from seed, it was feeding from one.